delmia automation platform

By Jim Caie

ARC WHITE PAPER

January 2008

Discrete Manufacturers Driving Results with DELMIA V5 Automation Platform

Copyright © ARC Advisory Group • ARCweb.com

By Jim Caie

ARC WHITE PAPER

January 2008


Executive Overview........................................................................3

Automation Simulation Comes of Age ..............................................4

DELMIA V5 Automation Platform......................................................5

Key Factors for Successful Deployment ............................................8

Excellent Results in Key Applications.............................................. 10

Future Expectations for Automation Simulation............................... 13

Conclusions and Recommendations ............................................... 13


2 • Copyright © ARC Advisory Group • ARCweb.com

DELMIA V5 Automation Platform

DE

SIG

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DELMIA AutomationControl Studio

Virtual Controller

VirtualHMI

DELMIA AutomationSmart Device Builder

DELMIA AutomationControlled System Simulator

VIRTUAL

“Control Design in Context”

Multi-

CAD

VA

LID

ATE

OPC ServerOPC client

PHYSICAL

OPC SERVER

Real or Soft PLC Real HMI

DELMIA AutomationPLC Setup

Developed with or by PLC providers

Multi-PLC

DE

SIG

N

DELMIA AutomationControl Studio

Virtual Controller

VirtualHMI

DELMIA AutomationSmart Device Builder

DELMIA AutomationControlled System Simulator

VIRTUAL

“Control Design in Context”

Multi-

CAD

VA

LID

ATE

OPC ServerOPC client

PHYSICAL

OPC SERVER

Real or Soft PLC Real HMI

DELMIA AutomationPLC Setup

Developed with or by PLC providers

Multi-PLC

DELMIA Automation Platform Connects Simulation and Real World Production Control

Discrete Manufacturers Driving Results Using DELMIA V5 Automation Platform

Copyright © ARC Advisory Group • ARCweb.com • 3

The DELMIA Automation

extension to the DELMIA V5

Platform provides engineers with

the ability to perform flawless

product launches.

Executive Overview

Fierce global competition is driving manufacturers to rethink their manu-facturing strategies and methods. Dynamic customer requirements, shrinking product life cycles, increasing product variants, reduced product launch times, and pressures for profitability are not only driving the need for more lean, agile, and intelligent manufacturing operations, but also for

improved manufacturing design capabilities. The emer-gence and adoption of next generation Digital Manufacturing (DM) tools are enabling manufacturing en-gineers to efficiently design and validate lean, agile, and intelligent systems before the product launches and produc-tion begins.

Dassault Systemes’ DELMIA V5 Platform represents a best-in-class DM so-lution set for manufacturers. The DELMIA V5 platform offers an integrated suite of tools that provide manufacturing process design, tool and fixture design, and factory and production system design through powerful 3D visualization and virtual simulation. The recent advance DELMIA has made in their V5 Platform with the addition of the DELMIA Automation Platform represents a major transformation enabling manufacturers to de-sign, validate, and commission their production equipment. The DELMIA Automation Platform allows manufacturing engineers to merge virtual models of production equipment with automation and controls. This en-ables the complete validation of all controls logic and HMI functionality. This level of manufacturing process design and execution capability will help manufacturers compete in the intensely competitive global environ-ment and execute “flawless” launches. Many discrete manufacturers currently use DELMIA products to help them design effective manufacturing processes. Several of these discrete manu-facturers are also assessing the use of the DELMIA Automation Platform to validate their control designs. And one of them, General Motors, is actually gaining a competitive advantage in using this technology for virtual com-missioning.



Automation Simulation Comes of Age

Automation simulation is the process of modeling, evaluating, optimizing, and validating controls systems for automation equipment and systems in a virtual environment. This technology provides manufacturing and controls engineers an opportunity to ensure controls designs work before produc-tion starts.

Discrete manufacturers have understood the tremendous benefits of auto-mation simulation for the last ten years, but they have not been able to deploy the technology successfully until recently. There have been three roadblocks preventing these companies from successfully using automation simulation:

• Automation simulation is very complex and requires precise model-ing of the electrical and mechanical parts of the manufacturing system. In the past, it has taken significant engineering resources to develop the models along with a huge amount of accurate data to drive the simulations making automation simulation impractical to use on a large scale.

• Automation simulation requires that a PLC communicate with PCs and related factory software. In the past, it took excessive custom design work to get a PLC to communicate with a PC.

• Until recently, there haven’t been DM tools available to efficiently develop and utilize detailed models of the electrical and mechanical components in an automated manufacturing system.

Today, this situation has changed substantially. Standards, like OPC, have made communications between PLCs and PCs easy to implement. More importantly, suppliers like DELMIA now provide very powerful automa-tion simulation tools that enable users to effectively and efficiently model, design, evaluate, and validate detailed electrical and mechanical systems. And lastly, manufacturers are beginning to integrate these automation simulation tools into their design process and controls architecture so they can efficiently utilize the technology. Clearly, automation simulation has arrived.



The DELMIA Smart Device Builder

module enables manufacturing

engineers to build effective and efficient

virtual models of smart devices found in

their control systems.

DELMIA V5 Automation Platform

The DELMIA V5 Automation Platform is a best-in-class DM solution set for designing and validating control systems. The DELMIA V5 Automation Platform allows manufacturing engineers to merge virtual modeling of production equipment with automation and controls. This enables the complete validation of all controls logic and HMI functionality prior to the start of production.

Smart Device Builder Module Provides Reusability

The control architecture for an automated manufacturing system consists of smart devices such as control panels, relays, circuit breakers, power sup-plies, and drives. The Smart Device Builder module enables controls engineers to efficiently build these smart devices for multiple controls ap-plications in a virtual environment. Control engineers can also define parameters for any specific device. These parametrics include information such as the internal logic, bit parameters, and interface descriptions for a specific device. Additionally, the Smart Device Builder module provides the user the capability to store virtual devices in a Smart Device Library. This library enables engineers to reuse previously defined virtual smart de-vices (and related internal logic and parameters) multiple times, as they build virtual models of their control systems.

One of the most important features of the Smart Device Builder is its import capability. This capability enables en-gineers to quickly develop a new virtual smart device or sub-system by importing an existing virtual device or com-bination of virtual devices from an external hardware design file or the Smart Device Library and modifying them. The import capability not only saves engineers time,

but also reduces errors because engineers start with a virtual model with the knowledge that it already works.

DELMIA provides tools so the controls engineer can take previously de-fined virtual smart devices from the library and assemble them into a virtual automation system along with control logic and a complete set of I/O. The device internal logic and parametric information is used to ensure the virtual devices function properly and properly communicate with other virtual devices. A controls engineer can assemble various virtual smart de-



vices from the library into a virtual main control panel or into a virtual group of smart devices on a network in a virtual cell as shown below.

The DELMIA V5 Automation Platform provides excellent tools to effi-ciently build virtual electrical smart devices and assemble them into a virtual control system. Manufacturing Engineers can also utilize DELMIA IGRIP software to build virtual mechanical models for robotic cell

Import Capability to Create Virtual Smart Sub-Systems

applications and several other software tools to build virtual mechanical models of conveyor systems and other production equipment. Reusing vir-tual smart electrical and mechanical devices in the virtual library is a key factor in gaining the modeling efficiencies needed to institutionalize the use of automation simulation at a company.

Virtual CellSmart Device Library

Virtual Main Control Panel

PLC

Drive

Valve

Gate Box

EtherNetIP

DeviceNet

Virtual CellSmart Device Library

Virtual Main Control Panel

PLC

Drive

Valve

Gate Box

EtherNetIP

DeviceNet



Controlled System Simulator Module

The Controlled System Simulator module provides users the capability to virtually simulate, debug, and validate a control system using the virtual devices and sub-systems from the Smart Device library that are configured for an application. Being able to simultaneously monitor four separate screens as the control program executes is invaluable for debugging com-plex designs. Engineers can watch the control logic execute on one screen and observe how the rest of the system is behaving on the other three screens. For example, an engineer can watch the HMI screen to ensure di-agnostics and data are displaying correctly. Additionally, he can check the electric panel screen to ensure switches are tuning on and off correctly.

Ladder Logic, Virtual panel/HMI, and Mechanical Execution

Visuals

Finally, he can watch the mechanically driven equipment screen to ensure the processes are functioning correctly. All aspects of the control logic can be validated including manual functions, auto-sequence, diagnostics, and fault recovery. Engineers can utilize these screens to validate configuration and placement of sensors and other I/O in the control system to ensure they properly perform all intended functions.

Electrical Panels in DELMIA V5 Logic Controlling the Cell

Human Machine InterfaceMechanical Equipment in DELMIA V5

PLC

Electrical Panels in DELMIA V5 Logic Controlling the Cell

Human Machine InterfaceMechanical Equipment in DELMIA V5

PLC



Key Factors for Successful Deployment

Although the DELMIA Automation Platform has tremendous design and validation capabilities, manufacturers face several challenges to effectively and efficiently use the technology. Discrete manufacturers must take the following steps to fully exploit this DELMIA technology:

• Establish a common manufacturing controls architecture for the company. Standardized on an open communication network, such as DeviceNet or ProfiNet, as well as a set of competitively bid elec-trical panels and common controls components (devices) that utilize these open networks. Stabilize the architecture for at least a three to five year period. This standardization enables controls en-gineers to develop a set of virtual smart devices that will be reusable for these three to five years. This reusability of virtual smart devices provides significant time savings in developing the simulation models needed to virtually validate control systems in the plants.

• Leverage the import capability of DELMIA’s Automation Platform by taking a modular approach in developing the virtual smart de-vice models. This modular approach consists of building the most basic virtual device models first, and then efficiently reusing them in specific configurations to build up more sophisticated virtual devices and sub-systems.

• Integrated the modules of the DELMIA Automation Platform with the company’s information and control systems architecture. This integration helps control engineers keep the virtual models rele-vant to the physical world and efficiently drive the automation simulations with accurate data.

• Integrate virtual validation tools into the company’s control design process so they can be routinely used on new, complex designs.

• Train key engineers so they thoroughly understand the company’s common controls architecture and DELMIA’s Automation Plat-form. These engineers are virtual validation Subject Matter Experts, who support project engineers in the field with the valida-tion of controls before deployment at a plant.



Example Development Process Using DELMIA V5 Automation Platform

This flow diagram summarizes an approach to integrate the DELMIA V5 Automation Platform into a company’s controls design process. The appli-cation ladder logic is developed and downloaded into a physical PLC. Commercially available electrical and mechanical design tools are used to develop application hardware designs and schematics, leveraging common component templates. These designs are digitized into virtual magnetics using the DELMIA V5 Automation Platform and into virtual tooling using the DELMIA IGRIP product for robotic cells and using other software products for conveyors and other equipment. The simulation is driven by actual ladder logic for the application. By integrating the automation simulation process into the company’s controls design process and controls architecture, the company is able to keep their virtual models relevant to the physical world, and efficiently drive the simulations with accurate data.

Electrical & Mechanical Design

Factory FloorValidation

Virtual Factory Floor

Validation

SimulatedEquipment

(Hardware Circuits)

SimulatedMagnetics

GenerateLogic

IGRIP

V5 Automation Platform

Database for Mechanical &

Electrical Design

Download

Read-InSchematics



Factory FloorValidation

Virtual Factory Floor

Validation

SimulatedEquipment Simulated

Equipment

(Hardware Circuits)

SimulatedMagnetics SimulatedMagnetics

GenerateLogic

GenerateLogic

IGRIP

V5 Automation Platform


Electrical Design


Electrical Design

DownloadDownload

Read-InRead-InSchematicsSchematics



Excellent Results in Key Applications

The DELMIA Automation Platform product is being used to optimize and validate controls designs for robotic weld sub-assembly operations in automotive assembly plants. The typical weld sub-assembly cell consist of

such devices as welding robots, welding fixture equipment, PLCs, HMIs, safety gates, safety systems, actuators, sensing devices, and automated inspection equipment. There is normally between one to ten welding robots in a cell and sometimes operators who feed panels to the first operation and stack or pack at the last operation.

Sometimes robotic weld assembly tooling and equipment is built new, other times it’s refurbished and re-used. The tooling and

equipment might be built by a turn-key line builder or by an in-house tool-ing shop. And the tooling and equipment might be integrated at the turn-key line builder or on the floor of the plant where it will reside. For each of the above situations, engineers ensure that the controls designs are virtually validated prior to deployment. Engineers normally conduct this virtual validation at central office and then travel to the build shop or plant to validate actual tooling and equipment run-offs. These engineers are also fully engaged in the deployment and final debug at the plant.

Virtual controls validation has proven itself to be a very effective time and cost saver for robotic weld assembly applications. The DELMIA V5 Auto-mation Platform technology has increased manufacturing flexibility and utilization of resources and significantly reduced tooling investment cost, deployment costs and lead times.

ARC has defined five goals that are important to effectively and efficiently deploy control systems at plants. The DELMIA Automation Platform is an enabler for controls engineers to meet these goals. The five goals and re-sulting benefits are:

DELMIA V5 Virtual Workcell



• Controls and systems ready prior to the start of production. Pre-validation of electrical and mechanical designs enable faster pro-duction acceleration. Initial quality is improved because the production system starts out working like it is supposed to. Train-ing is leveraged immediately because work is being done the right way without work arounds.

• Debug time minimized at the plant. Almost all electrical and me-chanical designs are already validated. The majority of validation left to do at the plant is narrowed down to checking physical con-nections and software interfaces. This results in significant production launch work force reductions at the plant, reducing en-gineering, direct labor, and travel costs.

• All possible conditions tested before production starts. Without

automation simulation, it could take years to experience all possi-ble combinations of scenarios that can happen on the plant floor. Automation simulation enables an engineer to iterate quickly through practically all scenarios.

• Consistent validation processes used globally. An automation

simulation capability helps to reinforce common validation proc-esses throughout the company.

• Virtual training capability utilized. Animation provided by

automation simulation gives engineers an opportunity to experi-ence the production environment and deal with various situations long before production actually starts.

The DELMIA Automation Platform is being used to enable engineers meet these goals. Discrete manufacturers now have the DELMIA tool set to de-liver delivered working control systems to plants before production starts. Initial results at an automotive company show savings between two and three man-weeks during startups, smoother product accelerations, and im-proved initial quality and productivity. Engineering teams at this company are using DELMIA tools to find problems that would not be discovered for weeks after production started. The management team is leveraging the DELMIA Automation Platform to provide a consistent global process for validating control logic. The goal at the company is: No matter where con-trol logic is designed, whether in North America, Europe, or Asia, whether by company people, tier ones or contractors, there is only one common con-



trols validation process - the one that uses virtual validation tools including the DELMIA Automation Platform.

The DELMIA Automation Platform has an outstanding capability to find logic and programming errors. This table represents a sampling of errors found in just one robotic cell application.

By using the DELMIA tools, engineers are typically finding over 100 me-chanical and electrical errors in logic, HMI, and drawings per cell. Two to three man weeks are saved during startup, saving thousands of dollars in engineering and production labor costs. Problems are normally found and fixed with minimal disruption to operations. Also, problems found in the field are solved more quickly since engineers can narrow them down to items such as physical connections, confident that the validated control code works. Scenarios not seen during startup can be simulated and cor-rected beforehand. All fault conditions can be tested, and all HMI screens will perform as expected at startup.

Routines for robot to drop off to next cell missing in program

Extra gates in E-stop rung

Robot paths grouped which should not be grouped

Confusion between conveyor and sta-tion tags

Robot DLD problems Incorrect out power for stations or output power not defined

Problems in Auto with cylinder repeat-edly going from work to home

Problems with aliases for turntable and fixtures

Robots welding more than once in a cycle or not welding

Incorrect I/O assignments for second PV

Robot collisions Incorrect data structures for fixture boxes

Robot and turntable collisions Problems with decision codes

No operator E-stop in logic Drop paths put in wrong programs

Problem with belt conveyor transfers Confusion with clear of zone and ro-bot clear bits

Problem with Telesis completes No operator safety power

Outdated data structures Robot clears not in robot program

E-stop with non-standard number miss-ing in logic

Simulations came through with paths not found in eRWD

Typical Error Checking with DELMIA Automation Platform



Control Engineers at GM are

experiencing the same excellent results

using DELMIA automation simulation

tools for conveyors as for the robotic

sub-assembly cells.

Future Expectations for Automation Simulation

The use of automation simulation is rapidly expanding into areas beyond robotic weld sub-assembly operations. A ripe area for the DELMIA Auto-mation Platform is the validation of conveyor control systems in assembly

plants. Historically, conveyor systems are never tested before installation at the home assembly plant because they are too large to setup off-site for testing. Conse-quently, significant debug time is required at the plant after these systems are installed, and the majority of this debug time occurs on the critical path of getting the plant started up. Control engineers at automotive OEMs

such as General Motors are experiencing the same excellent results using DELMIA automation simulation tools for conveyor implementation and commissioning as well as simulating robotic weld sub-assembly cells.

ARC sees another opportunity for DELMIA in the future. As discrete OEMs start using virtual validation tools on a routine basis, they will eventually require turnkey suppliers to simulate and validate their designs prior to integration on their plant floor. The DELMIA V5 Automation Platform will most likely be used by turnkey suppliers and integrators on complex pro-jects such as stamping press and CNC milling machine rebuilds to significantly reduce the time equipment is out of commission during the rebuild process.

The DELMIA Automation Platform will be an even more important asset to discrete manufacturers as they begin to fully understand the capability and benefits the DELMIA Automation tools have to help design effective con-trol systems and efficiently validate those systems prior to production.

Conclusions and Recommendations

Automation simulation has emerged as a powerful tool to help manufac-turers optimize and validate control designs for automation equipment. This technology ensures that the best manufacturing control designs are validated before production starts, conserving engineering resources and significantly improving product launch performance. Validated controls



designs for new vehicle launches result in improved initial productivity and quality and enable new and innovative products to reach the customer much faster.

The DELMIA Automation Platform is among the best-in-class automation simulation products available on the market. General Motors is using this Delmia technology to efficiently design and validate their electrical control systems in a completely virtual environment. GM is also in the process of integrating DELMIA Automation and DM tools from other suppliers into their control design process and into their manufacturing control architec-ture so that virtual smart electrical devices are accurately and efficiently developed and that accessible accurate information can drive the simula-tions.

Manufacturers should consider taking the following steps to evaluate the use of the DELMIA Automation technology for designing and validating their controls applications:

• Evaluate the DELMIA Automation products on simpler applica-tions and assess the benefits. Utilize DELMIA resources to assist in this evaluation.

• Expand the use of this technology in the company and integrate the DELMIA tools into the company’s control design process and manufacturing control architecture.

• Utilize the technology on critical applications to ensure that de-signs are validated prior to production.



Analyst: Jim Caie

Editor: Dick Slansky

Acronym Reference: For a complete list of industry acronyms, refer to our web page at www.arcweb.com/Community/terms/terms.htm

API Application Program Interface

APS Advanced Planning & Scheduling

B2B Business-to-Business

BPM Business Process Management

CAGR Compound Annual Growth Rate

CAS Collaborative Automation System

CMM Collaborative Manufacturing

Management

CNC Computer Numeric Control

CPG Consumer Packaged Goods

CPAS Collaborative Process Automation

System CPM Collaborative Production

Management

CRM Customer Relationship

Management

DCS Distributed Control System

EAI Enterprise Application Integration

EAM Enterprise Asset Management

ERP Enterprise Resource Planning HMI Human Machine Interface

IT Information Technology

MIS Management Information System

MRP Materials Resource Planning

OpX Operational Excellence

OEE Operational Equipment

Effectiveness

OLE Object Linking & Embedding

OPC OLE for Process Control

PAS Process Automation System

PLC Programmable Logic Controller

PLM Product Lifecycle Management

RFID Radio Frequency Identification

ROA Return on Assets

RPM Real-time Performance

Management

SCM Supply Chain Management

WMS Warehouse Management System

Founded in 1986, ARC Advisory Group has grown to become the Thought Leader in Manufacturing and Supply Chain solutions. For even your most complex business issues, our analysts have the expert industry knowledge and firsthand experience to help you find the best answer. We focus on simple, yet critical goals: improving your return on assets, operational performance, total cost of ownership, project time-to-benefit, and shareholder value.

All information in this report is proprietary to and copyrighted by ARC. No part of it may be reproduced without prior permission from ARC. This research has been sponsored in part by [Name of Client]. However, the opinions expressed by ARC in this paper are based on ARC's independent analysis.

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For more information on DELMIA, visit our website at www.delmia.com

About Dassault Systèmes: As a world leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, Dassault Systèmes brings value to more than 100,000 customers in 80 countries. A pioneer in the 3D software market since 1981, Dassault Systèmes develops and markets PLM application software and services that support industrial processes and provide a 3D vision of the entire lifecycle of products from conception to maintenance to recycling. The Dassault Systèmes portfolio consists of CATIA for designing the virtual product - SolidWorks for 3D mechanical design - DELMIA for virtual production - SIMULIA for virtual testing - ENOVIA for global collaborative lifecycle management, and 3DVIA for online 3D lifelike experiences. Dassault Systèmes is listed on the Nasdaq (DASTY) and Euronext Paris (#13065, DSY.PA) stock exchanges. For more information, visit http://www.3ds.com

DELMIA is a registered trademarks of Dassault Systèmes or its subsidiaries in the US and/or other countries.

Complimentary copy of the ARC Whitepaper is provided by Dassault Systemes Delmia Corp.

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